


Intergalactic Mysteries

by Anonymous



Category: Gravity Falls, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: All my homies hate Pink Diamond, Bill Cipher Is Dead, Bisexual Dipper Pines, Ding dong the wicked bitch is dead, Dipper Pines is a Dork, Dipper and Mabel have a crush on Steven, Dipper denies being bi tho, Dipper has nightmares about him though, F/F, F/M, Family Dynamics, Fluff, Fuck Pink Diamond, Gem Fusion, Gen, Good Brother Dipper Pines, Good Sister Mabel Pines, Gravity Falls Is Weird, Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, No Angst, Protective Ford Pines, Protective Stan Pines, Stan Pines Swearing, Stan Pines is a Good Brother, The Diamonds are protective grandmothers, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but fr tho I'm not a fan of Pink but I won't make her out to be a monster, steven hides the fact that he's a gem, summer job AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24791077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: While on his road trip, Steven comes across a small town known as Gravity Falls. He meets some folks called the Pines Family and even gets a summer job at their tourist trap called the Mystery Shack! Still, Steven can't help but feel something is off. It probably has to do with how all the towns folk avoided him when he first arrived, whenever he asks about the town's history he's always told "Never mind all that!", he sees everyone get uncomfortable whenever they even see anything that resembles a triangle, everyone hates the color yellow, the Pines twins always disappear on adventures, and Dipper and his Great Uncle Ford seem like they're constantly studying him.He's sure it's nothing to worry about, after all he's trying his best to live like a normal kid and not even tell his new friends about his gem powers. But his life is never too normal for too long.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Ruby/Sapphire (Steven Universe)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 187
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Tourist Trapped

**Author's Note:**

> There's not gonna be a lot of angst in this so if you came for that I'm sorry I just want my kids to be happy for once

_ Connie: _

_ Hey, did you make it to an inn yet? Or a motel? _

_ Steven: _

_ No, not yet. The one I was planning on staying at was full for some reason. I’m driving to the next closest town to see if they have one with empty rooms _

_ Connie: _

_ Do you know the name? Just be glad it’s still early in the day so you have all day to find someplace to sleep. _

_ Steven: _

_ It’s some small town in Oregon named Gravity Falls _

  
  
  
  


“DIPPERRR!” Mabel ran into their shared bedroom excitedly, nearly knocking over Dipper in the process due to not immediately seeing him. 

“Mabel, be careful! I’m in the middle of something, can’t you see?” Dipper huffed, gesturing to his setup that was placed in the middle of the room. He appeared to be working on some mini 3D map of Gravity Falls, mountains, buildings, cliffs and all. 

“I see but I don’t really get what you’re trying to do,” Mabel looked over her brother’s shoulder, her hair falling over his face. 

Dipper shoved the hair out of his face and held up his own personal journal, “I’m mapping out where all the weirdness in Gravity Falls is located. Like where certain monsters and creatures are or where magical artifacts are and stuff.”

“Ya lost me at ‘mapping out’. ANYWAY, I was out with my friends and we just saw THE cutest guy ever! He’s the one, Dipper!” Mabel sighed dreamily.

Dipper scoffed, “Seriously, Mabel? I thought your boy phase was last year.”

“But it’s different this time!”

“I’ve heard that one before…”

“He loves pink, he’s pretty, has painted nails, puffy hair, pink eyes, kinda short though-”

“Wait what?”

“Yeah, he’s like five foot six-”

“No, I’m talking about his pink eyes, Mabel!”

“Oh, yeah! He’s got the prettiest pink eyes. I think his pupils are in the shape of a diamond? I couldn’t tell, it would be weird if he noticed me staring into his eyes. Plus, I was too distracted by his beautiful singing-”

“Mabel,” Dipper cut his sister off to ensure he didn’t have to sit through another ten minutes of her rambling about some random guy she saw on the street, “Have you ever seen this guy before?”

“Once upon a dream,” she sighed dreamily.

So a stranger in Gravity Falls? That was a rarity. Last year, the only new folks to appear in Gravity Falls were Dipper and Mabel and even they would think it’s weird if someone new came along. Pink eyes and diamond pupils? Was he a creature or monster? A fairy? Something entirely new?

“Where did you last see him?” Dipper stood up quickly, tucking his journal into his vest.

“Oh, he’s downstairs in the giftshop.”

Without any more prompting, Dipper swiftly ran down the stairs, nearly tripping down half of them and turned into the giftshop. The first thing he saw was Wendy talking enthusiastically to an older boy, roughly her age.

“Dude, you know Sadie Killer? How?”

“Oh, we grew up in the same city. She actually used to work at my favorite donut shop before she started her band.”

“That’s soooo cool! I’ve always wanted to go see her shows but she never came close to here. Now it’s too late.” 

“I think I actually have some merch if you want it,” The boy shrugged.

“You do!? How?”

“Oh, my dad was her manager.”

While Wendy began freaking out and excitedly asked the boy questions, Steven finally got a decent look at him. It had to be the one Mabel was talking about, except his eyes didn’t actually look pink? Maybe it was just the sun making Mabel see things.

“Yo, Dipper, c’mere,” Wendy called out to him, snapping him out of his thoughts, “Some new guy’s in town.” 

“Oh, hello, I’m Steven,” The taller boy waved at him, giving him a kind smile.

“Uh, I’m Dipper, like she said,” He awkwardly waddled over.

“Dipper and his sister were the first new people here in years. Nobody comes to this little town so seeing them was weird. Don’t feel bad if people treat you weirdly, Dipper and Mabel are the only non-residents they’re used to seeing here.”

“That’s fair. So, you and your sister are on vacation here?” Steven asked. Well, Mabel was right about one thing, he was pretty. 

“Oh, um, yeah. We started coming here last year… Convinced our parents to let us come every summer now…” Dipper hated the feeling of his cheeks warming up whenever Steven’s attention turned to him. Whether Steven noticed or not, Dipper would never know because Steven only smiled at him.

“That sounds fun. This is my first vacation in forever, actually. I was usually busy running the school and being an ambassador and stuff. “

“You ran a school? Dude, aren’t you still in school?” Wendy blinked at him.

“Oh, well, uh,” Steven smiled nervously, “it was actually my moms’ school that I helped out in. My moms were teachers there and I kinda helped organize everything.”

“Your moms were teachers? What did they teach?”

“Um, one taught… computer science, another was in charge of helping students find jobs and… the other two taught all kinds of stuff to be honest.”

“You have four moms?” Dipper asked before blushing again, “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude-”

“Oh, no, it’s fine,” Steven patted him on his shoulder, “I usually get questions like that. Some people actually think they’re my sisters. They’re not really my moms but they’re the mother figures I grew up with so I just sorta refer to them as such. They’re friends of my mom so they took it upon themselves to take care of me. I lived with my dad in his van for most of my life until I was able to move in with them.” 

“Why a van?”

“We had no money,” Steven shrugged.

“Now that’s a family. Four moms, a dad, and their son.” 

Steven chuckled a little at the comment, “Heh, yeah. I miss them, to be honest, but I’m glad I’ve gotten a little bit of time to myself for once.”

“Having four moms watching over you your whole life must’ve been a lot,” Wendy nodded.

“What are you doing in Gravity Falls anyway? Do you have family here?” Dipper asked.

Steven shook his head, “No, I’m on a road trip right now. I was thinking about finding a job somewhere but I haven’t settled in anywhere yet. I heard of Gravity Falls the next town over when looking for a place to stay.”

“You’re looking for a place to stay? I don’t think Gravity Falls has an inn…” Dipper frowned.

Now that he was talking to Steven, Dipper didn’t actually see why he freaked out so much. Then again, a stranger with pink eyes would unnerve most people, even in this town. But Steven seemed like a regular dude. 

“Oh… do you know a town that does? Preferably close by?”

“Sorry man, I’ve never left this town-”

“YOU CAN STAY HERE!” Dipper yelled out, surprising even himself, “I-I mean, you’d have to ask my Grunkle Stan-”

“Ask your Grunkle Stan what?” Stan walked in, wearing his Mr. Mystery outfit despite no longer being the one who holds the title. That belonged to Soos but he didn’t have anything else to wear and nobody wanted a half naked Grunkle Stan. That and Soos let Stan be Mr. Mystery whenever he and Ford weren’t on any adventures so Stan was once again in charge of the Mystery Shack for the summer due to not wanting to be away when Dipper and Mabel were over. But only temporarily. 

“Can Steven stay here?” Dipper asked, pointing to the teen in question.

  
“Oh, no, I don’t want to intrude-”

“You said you were looking for a job, right? You can stay in our extra room for the summer but you will have to work at the Mystery Shack, got it?” 

“Mr. Stan-”

“Name’s Stan Pines, kid, and it’s a yes or no deal.”

“Please, Mr. Pines, you don’t even know me-” 

“That’s true… we’ll work out the details right now during the job interview, how about that?” Stan wasn’t asking, it was more of a command. Dipper had never seen his Uncle be this nice to a stranger, even if it was… a bit aggressive. Even Wendy was surprised, causing her to go silent.

“I… are you sure?” 

“Of course, hell, let’s have that interview right now. How old are ya?”

“Sixteen.”

“Where’d ya live before coming here?”

“Beach City, Delmarva.”

“Got a phone number?”

“555-1234.”

“Name of your parents slash guardians?”

“Uh, Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Pearl… though my birth parents are named Rose and Greg.”

“What’s their full names, kid?” Stan asked, causing Wendy and Dipper to stare at him.

“Uh… only my dad has a full name. His full name is Gregory Universe… well, it was DeMayo before he legally changed it… Oh and I guess my mom was called Rose Quartz? But that kinda isn’t her last name...”

“How do your moms not have full names?”

“They’re… not citizens?” Steven shrugged, laughing nervously. 

“So… what’s YOUR name?” 

“... Steven Quartz Cutie Pie DeMayo Diamond Universe…”

All three of them blinked at him before Stan bursted out laughing, “I like you kid. Welcome to the Mystery Shack. You start tomorrow. Dipper, show him where he’ll be staying,” Stan ruffled his nephew’s hair before walking off. 

“... Is that really your full legal name, dude?”

“Uh… I dunno about ‘ _ legal’ _ ...” 

While Wendy and Steven spoke to each other about the absurdity of the conversation that just took place, Dipper was sketching. A minute later, he was finished with the drawing of Steven, writing the words ‘Who is he really?’ at the top. A new mystery presented itself to him. 

The Mystery of who in the world “Steven Universe” really was.

* * *

  
  
  
  


“Stanley, you can’t just let random kids into my house! I thought we were over this!” Ford yelled at his twin, who was leaning against the door frame.

“Listen, he needed a place to stay and I wasn’t going to just let him sleep in a car-”

“Since when have you ever cared about anybody other than your family? You’ve never been generous to a stranger in your entire life-”

“He lived in a van his whole life, he grew up poor, his adoptive moms aren’t legal citizens in America, and who knows what happened to his birth mother! You know how awful it is to live in a van? ‘Cause I do! All he wants is a job and a place to stay! ” Stan snapped.

“... Still, you could’ve at least asked me. I would’ve said yes, you know… I’m just concerned. He’s new here to Gravity Falls, who knows how he’ll react to the weirdness of this place.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. What’s the worst that can happen?”


	2. Gem Glow

Mabel woke to the sound of a pen clicking repeatedly. It was still dark out so it was probably the sound that woke her up, not at all to her surprise. It happened often last year but she had no idea why Dipper was up now. There was no mystery to uncover anymore. 

"Ugh, Dipper, can you stop clicking that pen? Some of us actually want to sleep," Mabel groaned, tossing a stuffed animal at Dipper, knowing he'd throw it back in retaliation. 

"Sorry, I just really need to focus right now. I'm trying to figure this all out…" 

"What are you obsessing over this time?"

"I'm not obsessed! I'm just- I'm a mystery solver! I solve mysteries, so now I need to solve this one!" Dipper announced, turning the journal enough so Mabel could see what he had been working on. 

"Steven? What does he have to do with Gravity Falls' weirdness? He’s not even from here!”

“How do we know that? Don’t you think he’s been acting weird? Nothing he does makes sense!” 

“Dipper, this whole town is weird! Just one new guy isn’t going to change everything.” 

“We were two new guys last year and we caused the apocalypse!,” Dipper whispered as loud as he could without waking anyone, “Who knows what might happen! This town is literally a magnet for weirdness.”

“Who cares though? As long as he’s not dangerous, why does it matter if he’s weird?” 

“I- I just- I don’t want another Bill situation,” Dipper sighed, closing his journal.

Mabel thought for a moment before giving her brother a smile, “Hey, it’s okay. If he does turn out to be another Bill, we’ll kick his butt! After All, we’re not just any twins! We’re THE Mystery Twins!” She leaned off of her bed and reached her hand out for a high five. Dipper smiled back and returned the gesture, though barely tapping her hand since it was past midnight.

* * *

  
  


Steven had woken up very early compared to the rest of the Pines. He was still sort of used to waking up really early and had never really tried getting out of his habit. Not to mention he was pretty excited to start his new job and really wanted to make a good first impression. He walked into the small kitchen and made himself a together breakfast. Sure, it wasn't necessarily a ‘together’ breakfast and not very healthy but he usually ate it when he missed the gems.

Just as he added the strawberry, Mr. Pines walked into the kitchen… at least, it looked like Mr. Pines. He looked more sleep deprived and seemed a lot more fit than before. Still, he was pretty darn old. The Mr. Pines-lookalike didn’t notice him at first, heading straight to the coffee machine and only took notice when Steven cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Hmm? Oh, you must be the new kid… that’s not a very healthy breakfast, kid.”

“I- uh, I know, Mr. Pines…? You are Mr. Pines right? Or no?”

“My brother didn’t tell you about me? Ugh, of course he didn’t. I love him to death but he’s not the most responsible adult in the world… Name’s Stanford Pines, Stanley’s twin brother,” Ford held out his hand for the teen, who gave him a firm handshake in return.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Pines.”

“You can just call me Ford, son. You probably won’t see much of me since I’ll be down in my lab-”

“Oh, you’re a scientist?” Steven asked.

“I’d say I’m more of a researcher but I suppose you can call me a scientist. Any explosions you hear from beneath the house is completely normal,” Ford clarified, “Oh, and may I ask you a small favor?”

“What may that be?”

“Keep an eye on the kids for me. They’re a bit… adventurous and tend to go off into the woods on their own. I know they do it a lot and come back relatively fine but that doesn’t really stop me from being worried, you know?”

“Oh of course! I’ll try my best, Ford.” 

And that was how Steven ended up following the twins into the forest. Wendy had offered to cover for him, saying “This is your first day here, dude, get a chance to look around. And keep those kids out of trouble.” Which was weird, coming from Wendy. He had only talked to her twice and both times, she would bring up some rebellious thing she’s done.

“Look, Dipper!” Mabel ran over to something Steven couldn’t quite see, as it was hidden behind a bush, “Have you ever seen that?”

“Woah, never! It looks futuristic and stuff… do you think it’s one of McGucket’s inventions?”

  
“Ooooo, maybe? It kinda looks like the door to a bunker!”

“Interesting…” Dipper trailed off to write something in his, “Do you see any way to open it?” 

“Hmmm… no? There’s no handle or anything. There’s a lot of plants and stuff covering the surrounding area so maybe the keypad is covered.”

The twins spent the next three minutes trying to tear away thick branches covering… Whatever it was they were looking at.

_ I really shouldn't be watching them like this… it's really weird. But I doubt they'd like it if they were being watched over like they're little kids.  _ Steven frowned at his own thoughts. 

To distract himself, Steven had begun appreciating the forest around him. It honestly was pretty. It was obvious very little of the nature around here was altered by humans. Steven had spotted many animals when trailing the twins, including rabbits, foxes, birds, and a goat for some reason? Maybe it was a mountain goat. The sounds were pretty too. The sound of a distant stream, birds chirping up above, woodpeckers… pecking, leaves rustling in the wind, the terrifying sound of a creature grunting and growling that was increasingly getting closer from behind him, crickets- wait-

Steven whipped his head around and saw a humanoid creature stalking towards him. It seemed to be made of pure shadows, resembling a scrawny, bearded man with claw-like fingers, a worn hat, and a literally glowing white smile that revealed his razor sharp teeth. 

“H-hey… uh, buddy?” Steven slowly started stepping backwards, laughing nervously when the creature just moved slightly faster towards him, “So, uh, I’ve got a feeling you’re not a gem, huh?” 

The creature lunged at Steven in response, tackling him out of his hiding spot and right on the ground between the twins. 

“Steven?!”

“WHAT IS THAT THING?” Mabel screeched, grabbing a nearby stick and swatting at it’s head. The creature looked almost insulted when it’s hat was knocked off of its head. Thankfully, it was enough for it to get off of Steven, scampering over to retrieve said hat. “Are you okay, Steven? Dipper, what is that?”

“I think it’s called a Kill Billy! If I remember correctly, it will drink blood and steal our overalls!”

“At least we don’t have overalls?”

“He’ll still drink out blood, Mabel!” 

While the siblings yelled at each other, Steven moved towards the direction of the bunker they had mentioned, coming face to face with a very familiar diamond shaped door.  _ Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me! _

“What’s it’s weakness?” 

“I don’t know! The Journal just said to run to a convenience store but we’re a bit too far from one!” 

The Kill Billy let out a creepy laugh before leaping at Mabel. Thankfully, it didn’t use it’s claws so she wasn’t getting hurt but it kept trying to bite her neck like a much scarier vampire knockoff. Dipper grabbed onto it’s head and tried tugging him away but he wasn’t nearly strong enough to pull it away fully. The loud snap of a branch breaking distracted them, including the Kill Billy, giving Mabel a chance to kick it in it’s crotch. 

The Kill Billy screeched in pain and let her go, not putting up a fight when Mabel shoved him off of her. 

“Well, at least we know one of it’s weakness now!” 

“That’s probably a lot of people’s weakness…” Dipper shivered at the thought and looked over to see what the snapping sound was, discovering Steven had broken off one of the branches surrounding the bunker door. In the branch’s place was the symbol of a hand with some weird diamond insignia on it.

Steven, with the thick branch he had just broken off, swung at the Kill Billy, knocking it away a few feet, “C’mon, we’ve got to head inside the bunker!”

“But-” 

“That thing’s fast! We won’t be able to out run it so the bunker’s our best bet.”

“We don’t even know how to open it!” 

Steven didn’t even respond, grabbing the siblings with one arm and placing his hand on the symbol next to the door, opening it. The moment the three entered the bunker, the door shut behind them. The Kill Billy was obviously trying to get in, judging by the sound of growling and the repeated sound of scratching against the door. Still, the door never opened.

“We should… probably wait for it to leave…” Steven sighed, releasing the twins. It was nearly impossible to see in the bunker due to how dark it was, but thankfully Steven pulled out his phone and used the flashlight to light the area up.

“Right, thanks Steven… hey… where did you even come from?” Dipper asked.

“Were you following us?” 

“I- Yeah, I was, sorry. Your uncle told me to keep an eye on you guys in case you guys got into any danger and… I really wasn’t expecting this…” Steven sighed, sitting down on the cold floor. 

“Yeah… if you weren’t here, it would’ve attacked us anyway and we definitely would’ve been in trouble,” Dipper began to try exploring the bunker but was very limited by the single lightsource that only Steven had.

“So, uh, does this kinda thing  _ usually _ happen?”

“Haha… yeah? This is our normal here in Gravity Falls,” Mabel shrugged, reaching out for the flashlight, which Steven gave her. 

The ‘Bunker’ didn’t look like a bunker at all. It was decorated in pink gems and stone but it was hard to see what it really was. It must’ve been abandoned for a long time due to the amount of plants and roots that had begun to cover everything. Mable found it entertaining to shine the light at the pink gems that covered everything, which reflected the light in a pink hue around the ‘bunker’. It made it look like everything was glowing pink, including…

“Steven?” Dipper looked over at the older teen, frowning. 

“Huh?” Steven responded, looking distracted by something going on in his mind.

“Are you… okay? It looks like your eyes are glowing pink…” For some reason, the statement made Steven terrified, judging by how it pretty much snapped Steven out of his thoughts completely. 

“Wh-what? It’s- It’s probably the light,” Steven just laughed uncomfortably for a second before clearing his throat and standing up, “I’m going to take a look around for stuff we can use to make a fire.”

“But we’re surrounded by-” Mabel began before Steven basically vanished into the shadows of the bunker. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aight here comes the one and only angsty situation but it'll be over before you know it and everything will be back to shenanigans. Unless you wanna count monster encounters? There's a few of those but nobody will get hurt


End file.
